The etymology of the word religion comes from the Latin: re ligare, again connect or reconnect. But connect to what? Our God, society, nature, humankind? For rom, it is about reconnecting with the universe. But also to recognize we were never separate anyway. Every bit of material or allegedly immaterial rom came from elsewhere and … Continue reading rom’s Religion
Tag: religion
Islam has two major branches, Sunni being the predominant one. Shia is by far the next largest branch. The split was not theological but was initially hierarchical. This occurred at the outset of Islam. Sunnis favoured an elected leadership model from the wider tribe. And Shias thought leadership should remain in the Muhammad line. Within … Continue reading Islam
I started writing this as the judgement for Vickrum Digwa for the murder of Henry Nowak reverberates around the UK. Digwa murdered Nowak without justification with a traditional dagger. I had been looking into the core tenets of Sikhism before this. Anyway, below in italics are the core tenets of the Sikh religion; if there … Continue reading Sikhism
I thought I would have a crack at Hinduism. I asked ChatGPT to summarize the core aspects of Hinduism, and it gave the ten sections (in italics), which I reordered. Overall, it is not a tradition or set of traditions I can buy into. There are about 1.2 billion Hindus worldwide, with many traditions and … Continue reading Hinduism
People have a strange capability of believing weird things. Some examples: The world is flat The moon landings were fake Vaccines are harmful and microchips The Earth is only six to ten thousand years old Donald Trump was worth voting for a second time Angels and jinns Karma and reincarnation Afterlife Divine Birth of Jesus … Continue reading Beliefs
Scientism is used as a pejorative. I could argue it is a reaction of philosophy to science, in a similar way that Luddites react to technology. Generally, scientism is seen as a use of science that is in some way inapplicable to a phenomenon or circumstance. ScienceBut first, what is science? Well, it is a … Continue reading Scientism
Recently, I came across a letter from Einstein to a grieving father, Dr Robert Marcus, who happened to be a rabbi and had written in desperation. The father’s letter seems to have come from a book by Naomi Levy, called Einstein and The Rabbi. The two predominant questions to Einstein were: Is there any consolation … Continue reading Death
Here is a summary of where I think I am. Subject to change. The Chat AI suggested the following "pithy" descriptions:1) Process Monism2) Naturalistic Realism3) Agnostic Pragmatic Realism4) Causal NaturalismI think I will go with Process Monism, as it "Emphasizes [my] belief that everything is part of an unfolding, interconnected causal process rather than discrete … Continue reading My Position
Douglas Adams is one of my favourite authors. 'I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.'The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time 'The story so far:In the beginning the Universe was created.This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a … Continue reading Adams
Back in 2014, Lex Bayor and John Figdor had a go at creating a new version of the ten commandments. They did this by organizing a contest where there would be ten - 1000 $ prizes. The contestants had to submit their ten commandments and the reasoning for each of them. They had a panel … Continue reading Eight Suggestions